Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Chapter 0, classical equip & explore town ?

hello,

I'm a "nostalgic" D&D player (played my first game around 1980, 1st edition) and when a new adventure starts with level 1 players, I always had much fun equipping myself at local shops, meeting in the taverns and getting to know the "world" somewhat before embarking to the wilderness and the dungeons.

I wonder if the final release of BG3 could include a "chapter 0" ( maybe optional) where the new character could do this. (To the great enjoyment, I'm sure of many old school D&D players.) A bit like the beginning of Baldur's gate 1. Maybe one or a few simple introductory fights could also be included. When the adventurer reaches a certain point, the town could be raided by the mindflayers, and then move on to the current chapter 1, and proceed as it does now.

This intro could be made "skippable" to go directly from charavter generation to the escape from the ship.

I think it would give the game a more D&D and BG1 like flavor.

+1

An intro explaining our origins and abduction would be greatly appreciated. More like BG 1 intro, less like BG 2 intro

Agreed - this prologue also should get you from lvl 1-3 or somesuch... that way, the "expulsive" starting set piece wouldn't feel that charring.

I think I played D&D twice, a long, long time ago and I would like this. A little bit of who we were before being abducted would be nice.

+1 to this.

You know I would be cool without it not even resulting in experience and just pure flavor. You and your low level loser friends preparing for what you imagine to be an adventure, getting your gear together, putting a plan together that introduces you to the mechanics of general game play, then maybe resulting in a small skirmish interrupted by the Illithids. An hour or so of content just as with Candlekeep. Cut to intro, resume with the content given in EA.

Give me this, please.

Well, hopefully we get some changes. It's worth noting that the intro to D:OS 2 today is almost nothing like the intro to D:OS 2 at launch.

I mean, they didn't go as far as a whole new set piece, but it is far more branching, fleshed out, and instructive than it used to be. I think the good news with regard to Larian handling BG3 is that you're likely to get a very thoughtful, extensive, and polished first chapter by the time the game is a year or two out from full launch.

I'd have to pass, just because especially with the different races and classes available, a prologue that would actually fit any character concept would be so generic as to be boring. Easier to let my imagination cover the background.

As much as I like the OP's and other posters' ideas, I have to agree it might not be great in reality. It would require making a separate tiny "origin story" for each origin and several races/backgrounds for it to make sense story-wise.

I don't see a problem with the background stories. We're all level 1 PC's with 0 XP, so we could all just come from our basic training, eager for adventure and fame.
The main purpose would be, to add a D&D flavor to the story beginning and some of the claasical fun things for old-school D&D fans, like:
"Should I buy this ring mail, or just studded leather and a bow."
Or try to find some more money to get ring mail AND a bow.
And also learn something about the world in the tavern, maybe even a small town quest.

Now, as a cleic for instance, I awake from my pod, armed with shield and mace and a leather armor. Hmm, strange.
Otherwise, I could find my chapter 0 belongings in a crate beside the pod, which seems less strange.

But you could make chapter 0 skippable for those who want to dive straight in the heat of the escape chapter.
Although, in that case there may be a complication with XP. It would ean you can gain no XP in the chapter 0. Still, this could be solved.

Again, I like the idea and I share the sentiment, but it would require extra stories. Otherwise every character would start in the same Baldur's Gate inn or what have you... and it wouldn't make sense for many characters. Especially for drow and githyanki, who got abducted from who-knows-where and likely not the same place as others. And even for common surface races - "why is my outdoorsy ranger in this foul tavern?".

And this is just for customs - every origin would require a different Chapter 0, because they were up to all sort of different things before the abduction.

But some sort of generic character tutorial in this style could be nice. I think BG2 had something like that, though I didn't really explore it. It could serve as a lore introduction for newcomers, as you say.

This would be amazing, also reminds me of the different starts available in Dragon Age: Origins, depending which character you created. There are more options available in this game (class, race, background etc), so maybe it's not feasible. However I think it would help to get a better feel for your character and the world they are in, compared to starting with the abduction.


I hope that if your character is from Baldur's Gate, this has some impact when you visit e.g there should be people that recognise you, maybe somewhere you were living before.